Paul Van Nevel
Encyclopedia
Paul Van Nevel is a Belgian conductor, musicologist and art historian. In 1971 he founded the Huelgas Ensemble
, a choir dedicated to polyphony
from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Van Nevel is known for hunting out little known polyphonic medieval works to perform.
He grew up in a musical family. From the age of 11 to 18 he used to sing four hours a day. His father played violin and encouraged his son to play every instrument in the house. While his father loved Wagner, his son Paul favoured Béla Bartók. His nephew Erik Van Nevel
is also a choral conductor.
From 1969 to 1971 he studied early music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis
in Switzerland. There he founded the Huelgas Ensemble, taking the name from the famous Codex Las Huelgas
at the Cistercian monastery near Burgos which Van Nevel visited as a 24-year-old. He was able to spend two weeks studying the manuscript with the aid of a recommendation letter from the Belgian authorities.
Van Nevel teaches at the Conservatory of Amsterdam
and has been guest conductor of the Collegium Vocale Gent, the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the choir of the Netherlands Bach Society. In 1994 he was awarded the Prix Paris in honorem of the Academy Charles Cros. His recordings with the Huelgas Ensemble received numerous awards including the Diapason d'Or
in 1996 and the MIDEM
Cannes Classical Award for best choral music in 1998.
Van Nevel is well known for his fondness for cigars, this interest finding musical outlet in the The Art of the Cigar (2011, DHM).
Huelgas Ensemble
The Huelgas Ensemble is a Belgian early music group formed by the Flemish conductor Paul Van Nevel in 1971. The group's performance and extensive discography focuses on renaissance polyphony...
, a choir dedicated to polyphony
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Van Nevel is known for hunting out little known polyphonic medieval works to perform.
He grew up in a musical family. From the age of 11 to 18 he used to sing four hours a day. His father played violin and encouraged his son to play every instrument in the house. While his father loved Wagner, his son Paul favoured Béla Bartók. His nephew Erik Van Nevel
Erik Van Nevel
Erik Van Nevel is a Belgian conductor. He is the nephew of Paul Van Nevel.He pursued instrumental and vocal studies at the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven and at the Koninklijk Conservatorium and the Koninklijk Conservatorium ....
is also a choral conductor.
From 1969 to 1971 he studied early music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis
Schola Cantorum Basiliensis
Schola Cantorum Basiliensis is a music academy and research institution located in Basel, Switzerland, and focusing on early music and historically informed performance....
in Switzerland. There he founded the Huelgas Ensemble, taking the name from the famous Codex Las Huelgas
Codex Las Huelgas
The Codex Las Huelgas is a music manuscript or codex from c. 1300 which originated in and has remained in the Cistercian convent of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Burgos, in northern Spain...
at the Cistercian monastery near Burgos which Van Nevel visited as a 24-year-old. He was able to spend two weeks studying the manuscript with the aid of a recommendation letter from the Belgian authorities.
Van Nevel teaches at the Conservatory of Amsterdam
Conservatorium van Amsterdam
The Conservatorium van Amsterdam is a Dutch academy of music located in Amsterdam. This school is the music division of the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, the city's vocational university of arts...
and has been guest conductor of the Collegium Vocale Gent, the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the choir of the Netherlands Bach Society. In 1994 he was awarded the Prix Paris in honorem of the Academy Charles Cros. His recordings with the Huelgas Ensemble received numerous awards including the Diapason d'Or
Diapason d'Or
The Diapason d'Or is a recommendation of outstanding classical music recordings given by reviewers of Diapason magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the British Gramophone magazine....
in 1996 and the MIDEM
Midem
-MIDEM:Short for Marché International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale, MIDEM is the world's largest music industry trade fair, which has been held annually at and around the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, since 1967...
Cannes Classical Award for best choral music in 1998.
Van Nevel is well known for his fondness for cigars, this interest finding musical outlet in the The Art of the Cigar (2011, DHM).
Publications
partial bibliography:- 1976 Polyfonie en ars subtilior. Uitgeverij de Monte, Louvain, 75p
- 1992 Nicolas Gombert et het avontuur van de Vlaamse Polyfonie (superseded by revised edition in French)
- 2004 Nicolas Gombert et l'aventure de la polyphonie franco-flamande trans. Eva de Volder, Kargo Paris ISBN 2841620875 (marked "édition définitive" on frontespiece)